Seven Dirty Words in the afterlife….George Carlin 1937-2008

George Carlin’s heart gave up last night. Obituary here

He was master observer of our cracks and crevasses, brilliance and mind-numbing stupdity and taking all of our stuff and shining a bright light upon it all.

Probably left the world saying “oh cr*^!”

And he made etymology cool.

Spl chk nitemarez – or – don’t post when trying to leave work.

I must apologize for the nightmarish spell check errors in my Skype post yesterday. I tried to write it and clean up before leaving work.

Egads, you would think that I wanted to leave and enjoy a truly scale of 1-10 an eleven afternoon or some other crazy idea.

In the dark times before word processors my mom had this great dictionary.  The Misspeller’s Dictionary.  Something I could have used yesterday.

Skype Trying

I am trying out Skype as a voice and video communication tool.  If you use skype, call/message me at baldgeekinmd

Why you may ask?

Well, my library system purchased Face-to-Face meeting, cameras and headsets as part of a fantastic statewide grant. Face-to-Face is a product designed to bring realtime video conferencing to your desk.  If you pay for the full flavor subscription,  you get to also push files and websites to your fellow callers.

Our subscription to this product will end in September.  For 10 basic licenses and one super license, it cost our system $1,500 dollars for the year.

Needless to say that I am looking for a more economically viable alternative and following the lead of Allegheny Co (MD) I am trying out Skype.

So, ring me if you have an account. IF you don’t you can set one up for free at www.skype.com.

I <3 Mouseprint

As a boy in Brooklyn, I used to watch the news and loved to see consumer ripoffs exposed to some strong sunlight.   In the 70’s, each of NYC’s three major network o and o’s (owned and operated stations) had famous consumer reporters including Betty Furness and John Stossel, who made sure the people taking advantage of their customers were revealed to a very large local pre-cable audience.

At an early age my shopping bs meter was set at a very sensitive level.

Which is why over the years I have noticed that a “pound of coffee” is not a pound (it is now between 12 and 14 ounces) and a “half gallon of ice cream” became 1.75 quarts and is now moving toward 1.5 quarts all of course for the same price.

And which is why I LOVE MousePrint.  They hold a magnifying glass to the fine print on labels, sizes, warnings and other places were folks like you and I gloss over and get less for the same or more money.

Check out their newest post about orange juice.  Very enlightening.

Add it to your RSS feeder.   Keep informed.

Learning 2008 — Time for Dance of Joy!

Look out Mouse and Co. I just learned officially yesterday that HCPL and the State of Maryland DLDS are sending me (yep me) and another very lucky Maryland staff development colleague to the Maise Learning 2008 uber conference in Orlando this October.

I have heard tranformational things about Maise Learning Consortium events from many participants and look forward to taking part in this great learning think tank with people from many different industries.

Stay tuned for more information and I will of course blog and twitter the heck out of the conference.

W00t! W00t! W00t!

Twitter for Librarians: A Guide

Having problems explaining twitter to folks in your system?  Try this article.  It may not be ultimate, but it is comprehensive.

Twitter for Librarians: The Ultimate Guide

Some weeks writing for your blog equals pointing people to great resources.  So far, this is one of those weeks.

Via Cindi at http://citegeist.com/

My Jaw Dropped checking this out.

http://www.allmyfaves.com/

Yours will too.